Month: May 2010

Is anyone else having a problem creating an album. I am trying to create an album and no matter what I put in the title box, I get the message, please put in a title. Anbody having this problem.?

This year I have grown lots in the poly tunnel, great success growing from seed this year, just not enough time to pot on all I sowed… I think now I was a bit heavy handed with the seed packets!!!

 Have had great success again with Lupin seeds, Silene Hot Pink is amazing and Echium blue bedder is thriving.

Morning GLory climber is taking off and Foxgloves from seed are surprisingly really strong and growing rapidly, pity they wont flower til next year.

Sweet peas have been slow but now they are started and I pinched out the tips they are flying.

Sweet corn and tomato plants are well on the way.

Sorry it is taking an age to put up the photos!!!!! More later!!! Deep deep relaxation is calllllllllllllllllllllllling meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! LOL

I was in London for the weekend so today I have a lot of gardening to do. Started off cutting the grass and then planted up some window boxes and another hanging basket. Potted on some tomatoe plants I grew from seed and they are doing really well. That took me a couple of hours – in between I did the washing and ironing. So a good days work done by all.

I my garden the plum and damson blossom is finished now, I only hope the few bumble bees have fertilized the flowers. In flower are apples Jonagold, Cox’s orange pippin, Elstar, Crab-apple, Stella cherry, Pear, Josterberry, Strawberry, and all the currants. It amazes me the way the fruit of figs just appear as little bumps on the branches and gradually swell up until full sized.My Homeguard potatoes are up, broad beans are 4 inches high, peas 3 inches, parsnips, beetroot, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and shallots, all doing well.I joined Clontarf GIY in March and heard of a way to grow potatoes which I am trying, they are planted in a raised bed covered with black weed block which has 3 inch slits for the potato haulms to grow through.I collected cowslip seed last summer and have potted up 50 plants some to give to my brother in Wexford and others to local plant sales. My primrose seeds which I bought have not come up. The frost killed all but 4 Echiums which are shortly going to flower, but lots of seedlings are appearing around the garden.Today I sowed blue lake climbing French beans and mixed sunflowers under glass.I need to make 2 more raised beds for my courettes and French beans. 

In from work at 7, dinner and chat 8. 30 minutes painting some shelves for Aoife’s room. 45 minutes working on small bed at the side of the decking. Weeding, planted a few Summer bedding, loosened up the soil. Obligatory walk around to check everything.

Even that little bit in the garden lifted a gloomy day in work.

Last night I decided to check my E-mails, should do it regularly as all the garden comments quickly build up. However a couple of garden comments caught my attention and made my day. It brought joy to read these comments.

I was delighted to read that our good friend Rita is home and not only that is catching up with journals written in her absence. This is brilliant news as I can certainly say that I missed her on the site, a fountain of knowledge and gave it freely and wisely. Had the great pleasure to spend time in her company during the first meeting in Belvedere and was amazed at the amount of gardeners who made it a point to stop and talk to Rita. It shows in the high regard she is held.

I am over the moon that she will once again return to her journals an impart wise comments to us. It is indeed a great day when an absent friend returns and I know that all the gardeners will be as pleased as I am.

I think I wrote before about this very old giant Hebe bush whichhad such wonderful flowers for most of the year every year until the very cold spell damaged it beyond repair. I began to cut it back some time ago hoping to find some live wood but without success. Then I decided to cut it up for firewood for Fiona, my daughter whose dog Jasper takes me walking five days a week. Yesterday, I finished the job by digging out the roots and what a job that was; requiring the use of secateurs, hatchet, bowman’s saw and a lump hammer. The roots had spread everywhere and as soon as I cut through one I discovered another leading from it. I was stiff and sore at the end of the second day. But I eventually uprooted the monster, which had a main trunk like a tree. The girth of the trunk was too much for the bowman’s saw so I struggled to carry it out to my next door neighbour’s very large skip ( with his blessing of course). He has the builders in building a wraparound extension and told me to use the skip while it is there.      

Headed down to take a quick walk around the vegetable garden in the last few minutes to make sure beds used so far are doing well.No outdoor sowing or planting got done this evening as planned.Later on at some stage,on return home i will spend an hour in the tunnel.Heading off to play the Wednesday night card game and will reply to my journal early in the morning.Time for a very fast shower.

I was in Dublin today and was passing one of the €2 shops, I have read many times on here about the bargains available so decided to go in and have a look. I am delighted to say that for €10 I got the following…

 15 Dutch Iris (mixed) 

 4  Lilies ( Asiatic mixed)

 50 Chionodoxa Luciliae (Glory of the snow)

  Twin pack freesia,  7 blue & 7 yellow.

 I also got a little frog ornament saying "welcome to our garden" to put near the pond, it looked cute 🙂 

I will be checking out the €2 shop again…………… 

The tunnel is getting more crowded every day, as more stuff gets sown and small plants turn into bigger ones.   This year, in order to beat the slugs/snail I have raised most of the seedlings on shelves suspended from the frame of the tunnell – this has worked very well, as has the idea suggested by my 10 year son, Matthew (he saw it on Gardeners ‘world) of hanging  some old eavechutes from the cental support along the middle of the polytunnel.  These have been ideal for all the small pots containing pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, peppers etc. I have planted tomatoes all along one side of the central pathway, and climbing french beans (Cobra) all along the other side.  Could anybody give some advice on growing melons – I have about 10 plants – could they be planted out now?  What is the best way of supporting them?

04.05.10 – Sowed seeds – Lavender & something else…

it didn’t rain a LOT last night, but the ground is wet this morning.  it’s also blustery, so the weather is not great.  however, while i’d prefer warm and sunny weather to garden in, i am so grateful for this little bit of rain because i sprinkled poppy seeds all over what i call ‘waste ground’ beside us.  it was once a lovely little lambing meadow (part of the the original farm cottage) but now it’s just a wrecked patch with a gash of a road cut through the little sloping piece of land.  where the road was dug and the clay dumped (an area which is visible from the kitchen window and from our lovely deck), i recently sprinkled LOTS of poppy seeds, in the hope that they will ‘take’.  just because this little patch belongs to a farmer who now owns all the land that previously made up this family farm (as in, the little patch i’m talking about doesn’t belong to us), doesn’t mean i’m not going to try to grow wild flowers there – just so that it’s easier on the eye to look at.

after the few days of succesive rain we had recently i raked patches of moist ground, sprinkled the poppy seeds onto these patches, then dusted over them lightly with the same kind of soil from the edible border bed i was digging on our side (same type of soil) and finally i wet it all again with the watering can.  since then there’s been a bit of precipitation out of the sky most days, but last night was the best yet i think.  the thing is, my hose doesn’t quite reach there, or it’d be a breeze to keep the area moist.  i hope that nature asserts itself because even if only some of the seeds i sprinkled actually ‘take’, won’t they poppies seed themselves year after year then…?

here’s hoping for a lovely show of colour.  i love poppies anyway.  fingers crossed 🙂

On the road between Roscommon town and Athlone  just after the village of Knockcroghery, there is the most beautiful Furze (Gorse) lining the road on both sides  I open my windows and slow down to get that beautiful coconut scent . 

Sometime October last year I bought a pot of Autumn King carrot seedlings which I then planted in a bed at the allotment.  In February this year, Mart pulled one to see how big they have grown.  They’re tiny, so we left them in the bed to grow.  After reading some online articles, I realized that it only takes roughly 70 days for the carrots to be ready for harvesting.  My carrots have been planted for way over that time.  So, I assume it is because I planted them a tad too late which is why they didn’t grow within the appointed time.

Last Tuesday, Mart and I lifted about three carrots to check how they are.  Carrots have grown bigger but still tiny.  One of them is cracked.  I don’t really know what to do with them now.  Will they still grow bigger and be edible if we leave them for longer?  Or is it better to write them down now as loss, lift them all up, throw the lot in the compost bin, and reuse the bed for another batch of veggies for this season?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

When is this weather going to improve?  It’s so hard to get anything done in the garden.  I bought some fruit bushes last week and still haven’t planted them.  The slugs are out in force, eggshells keeping some at bay but think I’ll go the beer in saucer route – at least they’ll have a pleasant death – hic!!  The lawn is growing at a rate of knots and is too wet to cut – it will shortly be in the back door if I can’t get to it.  Lots of frogs about but  not near my pond.  For some reason they like the back garden and I’ve had to rescue several from the hens (they have cosmopolitan tastes) Ah well, at least I have time for the ironing – can’t believe I said that!

well i got stuck into weeding my large front garden….not its about 2ft x 6ft….anyway i weeded it yesterday to my detriment…….i had the window open so i could talk to my son while he was watching tv and as i stood up i belted my head on the window……well its true that if you get a bang to the head you see stars……well myself and hubby cracked up laughing at my poor little cut on my head….and the pain of it all day………..anyway its nice and clean and neat out front now….i got the back garden weeded last week so just waiting for me to win the lotto so i can plant more in my garden……

i also bought a new plant…..escallonia rybra var. macrantha……….its an evergreen shrub with peeling brown bark and glossy , dark gren leaves ,,,pretty , tubular bright rose-red flowers …..and supposedly flowers from june to september……well we will see…

its that time of year again where we on the parents association in james school start planting up the sunflowers…..thats on may 18th so hopefully we will get some great big tall ones this year just like last year…

Have managed an hour each evening in the garden this week and you can see the difference.  I have the bed between the patio and lawn cleared and ready for planting once I have finalised my planting scheme.  It will be a mixed boarder with a couple of small trees for height.

Overall I am pleased with the Spring Garden but now need to continue the colour through to the autumn.

The seedlings in the glasshouse are progressing nicely, some need to go outside soon due to size but I will hold off a while.  

Went to Dublin today to collect a koi that has out grown the pond he was in. It’s about 14 inches long and could barley turn in the pond. It took about half an hour to catch him, we had to take half the water from the pond and lower a bucket in to catch him. Using a net would be no use in case you would harm him. When I put him into my pond you could nearly hear him say thanks the way he just swam off to his hearts content. It’s great to get him.

About 3 months ago I planted some poppy seeds, they were the oriental type, The packets were old, so I did not give much hope of them growing, but thought what the hell, I will give it a try. 

At the weekend, I gave up hope, Decided that as they were about 5 years old, they would not work, so i tossed out the compost on top of my onion bed and lo and behold, this evening when out having a wander around checking on the veg, I noticed that I have loads of seeds germinated in the bed, Looks like 100% germination rate.

Delighted with my find. will transplant them when they are bigger, I guess we should never give up hope.

What in the world is happening to the weather. This morning was like the middle of winter outside, and then this afternoon was beautiful. The poor seeds don’t know if they are coming or going.  Mine are in and out like a fiddlers elbow. I just wish that it would make up it’s mind what its going to do and get on with it. Mind you I am only whistling in the wind because it dosn’t make any difference what we think of it at all.  Sorry for the rant but I’v waited so long for a garden that I just want to get down and get my hands dirty.(and I want to be able to get into my bedroom without triping over seed trays ;o)

What a lovely evening it was.Im glad to say that despite looking a bit  the worse for wear a month or so ago,my embothrium is now flowered and looks great beside the lovely yellow paeonia Lutea var Ludlowii.I know a few weeks ago when Fran was looking for ideas for his pot,that he said ‘no acers’ and i might have agreed up to a year or so ago but this year the Acer Palmatum Atropurpureum is particularly nice even if it isnt too well sheltered.It looks very well near the Photinia and the yellow leaved Lonicera  Nitida Baggescens Gold.By the way,if any of you has a Desfontainia,can you let me know how it got over the cold weather as my Mams one is very shook but showing signs of recovery.My one didnt do too badly as its well sheltered but its still not great.

As most of you know I prefer growing the veg and truth be told was never really into the flowers. The veg are an unassuming lot and basically do what it says on the tin. You plant them, they grow and a little attention often and they are fine. However this year I have decided to try my hand at a few flowers. As you may have read I have built a raised flowerbed and created two others. Here starts the problems

Flowers are a very confusing lot and if they were invited to a dance then we have problems. now if the veg were invited to a dance they would turn up when they were suppose to. Flowers on the other hand, well thats a different story.

The perennials would certainly turn up on cue beautifully attired and certainly could be counted on. The annuals, well there be a bit of work in getting them to show but I suppose you could depend on them to be present at the start of the ball. However after that the problems start. The half annuals, well you die of boredom waiting on them. Very fussy and everything has to be right or not a hope of them gracing the ball. if its to hot, no show, to cold and they are definetly not going to be around. However the biggest prima donna,s certainly has to be the biennals. They need two years of an invitation in advance and then certainly like the half annuals may not turn up at all.

I kinda regretting associating myself with these fussy ladies and they are starting to cause trouble already. Now I find out that if the seating arrangement is-nt also right a major row could start with some overshadowing others and not allowing them to show their beauty.

I should have listened to my mentor who stated " if you can-t eat it, don-t grow it". Saying that I think the same fella told me that pure water was bad for you and should be diluted down with jameson for consumption reasons. Its starting to get confusing